Uncategorized
mspringer | August 6, 2008Not long ago I wrote about one of the conceptual problems between intro mechanics and intro E&M from the freshman physics standpoint: developing a sense of the size of units between the two subjects. For instance, accelerating a spacecraft to escape velocity is no easy feat, but accelerating an electron to escape velocity only requires a tiny fraction of a volt. Let's do a similar calculation with power radiated from an accelerating point source.
As we know, a particle with an electric charge produces an electric field. A moving charged particle also generates a magnetic field. And…
cmcclain | August 6, 2008
When I do deep-sea research, I want to do it in style. It may be salty, dirty, rough work with long hours but there is no excuse for not being civilized. That is why I always wear a three button suit and ascot. I require regular breaks with dainty cookies and espresso. We celebrate the end of the cruise with a Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame Rose '98. However, the research vessel doesn't always match my sophisticated taste. That is why I am planning to purchase the Raven Yacht when it becomes something more than a concept. No specs yet but I am sure it will be marvelous! Designed by…
petnoyer | August 6, 2008One of the best things about hot days in the summertime is you get to sit around watching movies all day. ScienCentral is offering exclusive footage and interviews from the upcoming IMAX 3D production "Under the Sea 3D" featuring cinematography's sweethearts Michelle and Howard Hall talking about what it's like to work in 50 feet of water with a 1200 lb. camera that shoots 3 minutes of film.
Howard and Michelle Hall are to me what Jacques Cousteau is to the Natural Patriot. They improved on his tradition, but don't necessarily appear to be having quite as much fun, you know, with the wine…
grrlscientist | August 5, 2008
My companion parrot, Elektra, a female Solomon Islands Eclectus parrot, Eclectus roratus solomonensis.
Image: GrrlScientist 3 April 2008 [larger view].
Sometime today (probably while I was cleaning up after my parrots), this blog received its two millionth visitor! Thank you everyone!
gregladen | August 5, 2008Food for thought from On the Media:
Recently there's been a bit of a backlash against the angry commenter, especially the anonymous angry commenter. Newspapers around the country have had to disband comment sections because of racist content, ad hominem attacks and vulgarity. The Mayor of Hartford, Connecticut, Eddie Perez, actually staged a protest outside of the offices of The Hartford Courant in response to what he called "hate speech" on the paper's site.
... And so on.
Anonymity is important, for very good and legitimate reasons. There are people who feel threatened by others because of…
mspringer | August 5, 2008I spent a few hours on the interstate this weekend, and I heard a Kid Rock song on the radio called "All Summer Long". If your tastes are anything like mine you'd probably rather not hear it. The song describes Kid's life as an 18-year-old, when "it was summertime in northern Michigan". Basically he does several irresponsible things in the chorus, topping the list off with the assertion that these things were done while "singing Sweet Home Alabama all summer long".
Come on, Kid. You were closer to thirteen-letter-expletive Quebec than you were to Alabama. Your lyrical choice lacks a…
cortex | August 5, 2008The history of science is littered with surprising discoveries that forever changed our conception of the unvierse and ourselves. The earth is a sphere, even though it appears flat. Life has no designer, even though it looks designed. But this may be the most surprising discovery yet, a fact that seems to undermine one of the basic truisms of my morning routine:
It was long thought that caffeinated beverages were diuretics, but studies reviewed last year found that people who consumed drinks with up to 550 milligrams of caffeine produced no more urine than when drinking fluids free of…
cmcclain | August 5, 2008The Te Papa Squid webcast of the colossal squid dissection is now up for your long term viewing pleasure. To bad smell-o-vision still isn't a reality or you could really "live" the entire experience.
cmcclain | August 5, 2008Listen. I know hot water, mainly because I am always in it. A new study reports the hottest water ever recorded 464 degrees C (867.2 F). That so hot the water is in the vapor-phase supercritical region (say three time out loud), basically somewhere between gas and liquid. But doesn't water boil, i.e. go into the gas phase, at 99.97 degrees C? It does at 1 atm but at 3000 meters the increased pressure allows water to stay a liquid at higher temperatures.
Of course all of this reminds me of the classic SNL skit.
sb admin | August 5, 2008by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
The Health Care Renewal blog has made a business of chronicling the undreside of the American health care system: fraud, conflicts of interest by respected academics, bureaucratic incompetence and malfeasance. I do basic research and don't get involved in health care delivery so I only refer to them occasionally, but it's a terrific resource -- if you like that kind of thing. Last week, however, they hit pretty close to home. Not literally, but professionally. I'm a cancer epidemiologist and in a long career have made frequent use of state cancer…
petnoyer | August 4, 2008Think of an aquatic habitat as far away from the deep-sea as you can get without coming up on land, and we will find a connection to the deep-sea. River rock = settlement substrate. Kelp forest = urchin food. Beaches = spawning grounds for tuna food. Mangroves = seafood ... food.
Bumper stickers in the Carolinas say it best - "no wetlands, no seafood."
Now imagine for one moment that you actually depend on the ocean for your daily meal. That you couldn't go to the grocery store, or even a restaurant, for seafood. And, it's getting harder and harder to find your seafood. That's the story I…
gregladen | August 4, 2008I have a file called "email.txt" and I want to count the number of lines in it.
cat email.txt | wc -l
cat email.txt | sed -n '$='
The first example uses wc (which stands for "what's the count") with the -l (lines only) optin. The contents is pushed via cat through standard output into a pipe and thusly becomes standard input for the next command (wc).
The second example does the same thing with sed, and demonstrates a number of interesting aspects of sed. the equal sign causes the output of the current line number. Sed normally runs through all the lines of the file or input given to…
kevin z | August 4, 2008Lots of cool stuff from New Scientist in the last week! Don't have much time to offer an analysis of them as I am down in North Carolina house-hunting. But I encourage you to "tawk amongst ya selves". Here are some wet offerings:
Giant Vacuum Cleaner Leaves Reefs Thriving
"To create the Super Sucker, biologists modified a system designed for gold dredging. Seaweed from reefs is sucked up and dumped onto mesh sorting tables on a barge. Native organisms inadvertently vacuumed are removed and returned to the reef and the seaweed is eventually used by farmers as fertiliser.
(snip)
The researchers…
mspringer | August 4, 2008There's a long list of things that scientists do that are unpopular. The creation/evolution argument rages on, the stem cell fight still provokes legislative skirmishes, genetic research raises discrimination concerns, neuroscience questions the very sense of self, and that's just the tip of the research iceberg. In broader science culture, there's nuclear energy, Yucca mountain, wind turbine locations, navy sonar, ballistic missile defense, wildlife habitat preservation, the space program, oil exploration, public funding...
But as far as I can tell, there's only one research subject that…
kevin z | August 4, 2008Angela was out documenting World Ocean Day in London last week and spotted a bit of the Deep in her neighborhood! Go check out her photos of other people celebrating the ocean in their own homes (and bathtubs!).
How do you celebrate the oceans? Do you also celebrate the deep oceans? Send me your pictures and I will post them!
grrlscientist | August 4, 2008Here's a few blog carnivals for you to read;
Carnival of the Blue, number 15. This is a new blog carnival that focuses on the ocean, including ocean life asn well as non-oceanic life that is dependent upon the sea.
All Things Eco, issue eleven. This blog carnival focuses on living lightly on the earth.
Carnival of Family Life, 4 August 2008 issue. This blog focuses on all aspects of family life, from education to health and wellness.
grrlscientist | August 4, 2008ScienceBlog's reader meet-up is in the process of being changed because of a very real and present threat of rain. An outdoors-only venue is definitely not a good idea if those who show up have to huddle under umbrellas or get soaked down to their underwear! The time and date remain unchanged but the location has been changed;
The new location: Social bar and lounge -- look for us in the back room.
Date: Saturday, 9 August 2008
Time: 2-4pm
Seed Media is buying the first round of drinks so don't be late!
cmcclain | August 4, 2008Sometimes pictures are too cool to wait for Friday. My friend Tom K. sent these along for my enjoyment and now yours. The first is a close up of the bay scallop, Argopecten irradians, where you can clearly the ring of blue eyes that around the mantle. They are weak but sufficient to detect predators. The second is the red-footed or pygmy sea cucumber, Pentacta pygmaea, common along the Gulf of Mexico.
cmcclain | August 4, 2008I like things in the deep!
I think about them when I sleep.
It does not matter if they're red or blue, swim or crawl.
Because I am banking my career or whether they're big or small!
Seriously though if you ever read just week's worth of DSN, you will know my serious affinity to body size extremes in animals. Over at Evolutionary Novelties, there is a great post that should have occurred here on the giant ostracod Gigantocypris.